Cabra History.Com

‘At about six o’clock every evening our Da’ would arrive home from work on his oul bike. He’d be wrapped up in his great big overcoat with his cap on his head and his gloves firmly shoved on his hands against the cold evening air. Now he had a carrier on the back of the bike so that he could carry things home and not be wobbling all over the place trying to manage things in one hand and directing the bike with the other. I remember one evening in particular when he arrived home with a box tied on the carrier. Well now, I can tell you the excitement of us kids was second to none, you see, we all thought he had brought home loads of apples of sweets or something that we could eat. The Da’ brought his bike through the kitchen and out into his shed with the box still on the back. After about ten minutes he came back into the kitchen and placed the box on the table. I was only a small fella at the time because my chin only came up to the top of the table. Then the Da’ says ‘Be quiet and listen.’ It was then we heard this strange noise coming out of the box as if it was full of little whistles tweeting away. Then the magic happened, the Da’ slowly removed the lid off of the box and there was a load of little yellow birds inside. Then the older brother ups and says “A load of canary’s…”. The Ma’ and Da’ laughed out loud and then told us they were little baby chickens. The Da’ took one up in his hand and let us have a closer look at it, it was just a little yellow ball of fluffy feathers. The next day the Da’ and the brothers went at it hammer and tongs and in next to no time we had a chicken run in our back yard with all the little chicks running about. What a great adventure that was for those little chicks and for us little Coffey’s as well…’